In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway - Review

Just a little quick review from me for this - it really isn't long at all. I listened to it on audio book while I was driving somewhere recently and it's only a few pages long. But I am counting it so it's here. 

This is a series of vignettes including two which are about Hemingway's most famous character, apparently. They are a lot about war and bull fighting, and I did quite like the juxtaposition between the two. But overall I didn't love the style or the themes so this is just a three out of five for me. 

Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler - Review

I've read a couple of other books by Anne Tyler and liked them, so when I saw this in a charity shop I bought it for just a couple of quid. It hasn't been on my shelves for very long before I got round to it. I say shelves, what I really mean is the five piles of books under my mirror in my bedroom. I ought to stop buying books but..... that won't happen. 

I love Anne Tyler because her books are short but perfectly formed. They're really understated, I think. She usually has a current time narrative which is very contained to within an area or a time frame, and then she keeps going back in time to explain how the main character to got to this point in their life. This book is no different. 

Charlotte is in her forties, I would say, and she is in the queue at the bank one day. She is planning to leave her husband, Saul, so she is collecting all her savings in order to be able to leave. But there's a fracas and a man is trying to hold up the bank and he ends up taking Charlotte hostage. He gets some money but not loads. He has a gun and he forces Charlotte to the bus station, where they get on a bus and then hotwire a car to head south to Florida. They don't have a lot of cash between them. And although Charlotte is a bit frightened, she's not frightened for her life. She realises Jake is just a bit of a chancer and besides, this is kind of getting her out of the monotony of her life. 

She still lives in the house she grew up in. She was the only child of older parents and she wasn't exactly a welcome addition to their lives. Her mother very often didn't leave the house. Her father was a photographer who had a studio in the house so all kinds of people used to drop by. Charlotte was a neglected and odd child. Some of her neighbours were the Emorys. They had four sons and the wife, Alberta, used to be friends with Charlotte's mother. However she then took off with her father in law, and one by one the sons dropped off. 

Saul joined the military but when Charlotte is around twenty or something he comes back. They start a relationship but then Saul becomes a preacher and Charlotte has a baby. By the time she has finally made up her mind to leave him, all his brothers and some other waifs and strays are living in Charlotte's house, and she just feels like life is whirling past her. 

It's a fab book and I really recommend it. I'm giving it five out of five. 

The Herd by Emily Edwards - Review

Lynn in my book club chose this book for this year, and by coincidence I had already bought it on Kindle when it was only 99p. So I was excited to get to it and read it at the beginning of July. I read it really quickly because it really captured me. I'm not surprised that it was a Richard and Judy book club book because it's just got that vibe to it. It'll be interesting to see what we make of it at book club!

The book is about two families, the Chamberlains and the Kholis. They live on the same street in a place called Farley, which appears to be fairly close to London and has a beach, so maybe like Brighton or something.  Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain have three children - Max, who's nearly twelve, Charlie, who's about ten, and Clemmie, who is seven. Elizabeth and Bryony have been friends for like twenty years, since they met at uni, and they're extremely close. Bry is married to Ash, and they have a little girl, Alba, who is four. They have a lot of money because Ash sold his businesses. Elizabeth and Jack clearly do have money, but Jack is struggling to keep things going and also really clearly hates his job in the City. 

Clemmie had seizures when she was little so she has not been vaccinated. Elizabeth truly believes in vaccines, and to begin with would check who was hanging out with Clemmie, but she's sort of forgotten about that recently. But there's a bunch of stuff coming up at the end of the school term, so she sends out an email asking for the vaccination status of every child who is coming to Clemmie's party, and asks that if they're not vaccinated, they don't come. 

But Alba is not vaccinated. You see, Bry's older brother Matty is autistic and non verbal, and lives in a home. Their parents are convinced that he became autistic after some of his vaccinations, so they are truly against them. Sara has in front done some protesting and stuff like that. Bryony has spent her whole life with the 'burden' of Matty's existence on her. Her family life has clearly been hard, so she didn't want Alba to be vaccinated. Her younger sister Jessie has just had a baby, Coco, and Bry knows all her mum's arguments as to why Coco shouldn't be vaccinated either.

But she has to lie to her oldest friend. And she does. But then measles breaks out. 

Right from the beginning of the book the reader knows that there is a court case going on, but it's not immediately clear what has happened and who is involved. There are small points of view of a few people who are attending the court case, including reporters, online trolls, and more. 

I generally did like the book and found it very readable and an interesting story. It's easy to sympathise with both Bry and Elizabeth, for different reasons, over different parts of the book. I liked the supporting characters in the street, too. I liked the microcosm of life. I did find everyone insufferably middle class and this is something I would like to discuss in book club because I think it would be different if it wasn't set in such a well to do, affluent street. 

In all I'm giving it four out of five. It was written mostly before the Covid lockdowns, but it is interesting to read it in the light of what we've been through in the last four years, and through the scary rise of antivaxxers both here and in the rest of the world. 

Terra Electrica The Guardians of the North by Antonia Maxwell - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Terra Electrica The Guardians of the North by Antonia Maxwell! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do have a click around and read some of my other posts. 

I love good midde grade so I signed up for this tour straight away, and I'm glad to say that it was so worth it because I really liked the book. It felt like it really fitted into the sort of epic storytelling that we all remember from our childhoods. But it's also a really modern story with issues like climate change at its forefront, which I liked too. I think kids from around aged ten would like it. 

So the protagonist of the story is Mani. She's twelve. She lives in the Arctic I think, only this is in the future where all the ice caps have melted. Her mother has died. She and her dad were living in a cave but her dad went out to find food. He was an elder in their community, but now everyone else is dead. They had some kind of sickness caused by electricity and died. The cave was safe, but they needed food, so Mani's dad set out. He said he would be back in eight days, but now it's been twenty nine days and Mani is starving. 

So she heads to the research station not too far away and there she meets Leo. He is a scientist and he gives Mani food. He has the sickness too - she can tell by the flashes of electricity in his eyes. He wants them to set out to The Ark, which is the company that he works for. He is certain that they will have a cure for the sickness, and he tells Mani that her dad is probably there too. So they set off together on an epic adventure. 

It is like a Hobbit adventure for sure, it has all the hallmarks and I really liked it. I liked what happened along the way. Mani also has a mask that lived above her bed, but she wasn't old enough to be told about it. But now she has started to use it, and she explores magical worlds within it. 

I'm giving this four out of five and I would definitely be interested in reading the next in the series. 

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do click around and read some of my other reviews. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and am glad I signed up for the tour because I really liked it. 

The novel has three protagonists: Zohaib, his younger sister Misha, and Nadia. Zohaib and Misha grew up in relative wealth in Lahore, and Nadia was the daughter of one of their maids. She is between the two of them in age, and while they're friendly and while Misha and she often act like sisters, obviously there is a class difference between them and always will be. 

Misha's parts are in the past, when she was just a little girl of about eight. She is a spoilt child, but loved by her parents and family. Hers is a mostly easy childhood, coddled by her family. 

In the present time, Zohaib and Nadia are living lives literally and metaphorically thousands of miles apart. Zohaib is living in London. He has a friend, Talha, and a therapist that he sees often. He's about twenty six at this point I think. Talha is often worried about him and asks him to go trekking in Peru with him. Zohaib has mental health problems and clearly has a lot of past trauma. He is no longer close to his parents, who are now divorced, but both still in Pakistan. 

Nadia, also known as Nono, is living in poverty. She has an office job that she loves, but her husband is a drug addict and is out of work. She's pregnant and is sexually harassed by men in her office. She fears for the future and eventually heads back to her childhood home. 

It was obvious something bad had happened but I didn't guess what, which I did like, although I didn't guess exactly what. I really liked the setting of the book and could imagine the family home perfectly. I really liked Nadia as a character and wanted her to do really well. In all i'm giving this four out of five and am glad I joined in the tour for it!

Little Baby Nothings by Manic Street Preachers and Valerie Phillips - Review

Alright, so it's not technically a 'book' because it doesn't have words. It's just photos. But I liked it, so I'm going to write a little bit about it here. 

You might know that I was a big fan of the Manic Street Preachers back in the 90s. I have the words 'cheap tarnished glitter' tattooed on my left wrist. I haven't really liked much of their output since like 2003, but I do sort of keep an eye on them. I would have loved to see them with Suede round about now actually, but the logistics of it just didn't work out for me. 

So I saw the band advertising this new photo book and I was intrigued, so I bought it. The first hundred or something were signed copies, and as you can see, I was lucky to get one of those! It arrived really quickly and I was really pleased. The photos are from 1991, way back when the Manics were touring songs from Generation Terrorists. They were supported by the Wildhearts, who I also really like, so it was cute to see that. T shirts cost just £7! There are plenty of photos of the tour, including some photos of the band in tacky bed and breakfast hotels which ended up on the front of the Motorcycle Emptiness single. There are also a number of photos in James' old house, showing the band in his and Sean's bedroom (they're cousins and Sean lived with the Bradfields for quite a while as a teenager) on their bunk beds. There's some beautiful photos of Richey - who has been missing since 1995 - including some of him in leather pants which I don't think I've ever seen before. There are just so many beautiful photos and lots which were poignant and lots which made me laugh, too. I read this really quickly one evening waiting for tea and I'm glad I bought it.

Also see below for the most beautiful end papers ever! 

The Anarchists' Club by Alex Reeve - Review

I read The House on Half Moon Street in June 2023 and reading back my review of it, it seems like I didn't like it very much! But I was reminded of the series and decided to request the second one from the library, and when it arrived I picked it up really quickly. I really enjoyed it, way more than the first one. I think the author has settled into writing a bit, which helps. There's a lot less detail and less description, meaning that the writing flowed so much better. I really fell in love with Leo a lot more, and I now want to read the next two books in the series quite soon. I hope this book is a sign of things to come!

As a reminder, Leo is a trans man, but because the book is set in the 1880s, he doesn't have that terminology to refer to himself. But we would now, so I'm going to. He used to be known as Lottie Pritchard, the well to do daughter of a vicar, but he always knew he wasn't a girl, and finally, aged fifteen, her left the family home and made his way to London. He now lives in a chemist with Alfie, his landlord, and Alfie's daughter, Constance, who is twelve. 

So the book is set about a year after Maria died in the first book. Leo is working as a porter in the hospital, but actually there's way less of that which I liked because it just wasn't relevant to the story. He's working in the chemist one afternoon when a woman arrives with two children, aged ten and six ish. She buys some bromide and leaves. Leo wouldn't think anything of it except that a few days later the police arrive at Leo's door. The woman has been found in a shallow grave and in her pockets was a piece of paper with Leo's name and address. Leo is baffled as he only met her very briefly and has no idea who she is. 

He goes with the police to a confusing courtyard and warren of rooms where Dora has been found. The kids, Aiden and Ciara, soon turn up, and Leo comes to be very fond of them. The rooms where Dora lived are part of an anarchists club. There, Leo meets a man from his past - someone who knew him before - who wants an alibi for Dora's murder and who blackmails Leo, threatening to expose him if he doesn't provide the alibi. Maybe John is the murderer, but there are so many confusing things about that case. Leo also has to get back in touch with his family, which is difficult. 

There's Rosie, too, who we met in the first book as her husband was murdered. Constance wants her and Leo to be friends, but it's difficult between them. 

I loved the mystery here and the setting. I really think the author just settled into the world a lot more. I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Book of Queer Prophets Edited by Ruth Hunt - Review

My next book for Pride Month was this non fiction book. I've had it a few years; it was a present from my friend Leanne for Christmas one year. I've been meaning to pick it up for ages and I finally got round to it and I'm really glad I did. 

I am really interested in faiths of all kind. My undergraduate degree was in Theology and Religious Studies and it's something I've kept up with throughout the years. I work for a faith based charity even though I'm not religious myself. I had some religious trauma growing up so I don't worship, but I find all faiths and none absolutely fascinating. So this book was right in my interest zone! 

I knew some of the names listed so I was really interested to read things by them. These included Amrou Al-Kadhi, Jeanette Winterson, Dustin Lance Black, Jay Hulme, Juno Dawson and of course Kate Bottley, who writes the afterword. I really enjoyed these pieces, especially Dustin Lance Black, whose history I had no idea about but it was fascinating to read. I liked Kate's afterword, too - she is straight and she talks about coming to a place of needing to fight for queer people within her faith. It's a really honest piece and I appreciate it. I also really liked Juno Dawson's - she no longer has a faith so that was interesting to read too. 

The pieces are mostly written by Christian people or people who used to be Christians but are no longer. Amrou is Muslim but I think they were the only Muslim represented. There are a couple of Jewish people which I also really liked reading as Reform Judaism seems to really accept LGBTQ+ people and want them in the faith. Most of the Christians are still practicing and a lot have gone into ministry, which is really interesting to read about even if it's not something I would be interested in myself. I like hearing people's testimonies and this is basically what this book is in one way or another. 

I also liked to read about people's anger with their faith, whether they had gone back to it or not. There has been so much crap slung at queer people within all faiths, and I am so glad that these people were so honest about their walks with god or indeed not. 

I'm giving this five out of five and am wondering who I can pass it on to! 

Something To Be Proud Of by Anna Zoe Quirke - Review

I saw someone talking about this on Twitter so I pre ordered it. It arrived at the beginning of June and I picked it up as part of my queer reading for Pride month. I'm really glad I picked it up so quickly because it is so much fun and it really made me laugh. It's also got a lot of depth to it, a lot of heart. I would really recommend it for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community. 

The book starts with Imogen at a Pride festival. She's bisexual and autistic, and the noise of the festival and all the sensory stuff and everything else overwhelms her, and she ends up having a not great time there. She gets left behind by her 'friends' and starts thinking that she would love to create a more accessible Pride event (because nothing can be one hundred percent accessible). She starts sixth form (I think, there's not a lot at school but it seems like it's September and her year has just done GCSEs) and realises that her friends - whose names I don't even remember because they're not significant - aren't real friends so she ditches them. She wants to start an LGBTQ+ pressure group at school so she asks the headmistress if she can. She's fobbed off, being told that she'll need five members and one teacher involved. Imogen doesn't let that stop her, though, so she goes to ask Ollie if he will join.

Ollie is the gay captain of the football team. He's also part Japanese. He's out and proud. He love his mum and little sister, Maya, but things are difficult at home because his parents have just announced they're getting divorced. Ollie realises there's lots he's not being told about the situation, and his anger with his dad grows. I loved Ollie's family situation and what happened in it throughout the book. Ollie is totally bemused by Imogen's suggestion and refuses to join. But then Amelia hears about the group.

She is head girl and is going out with Josh. He's also on the football team so they're like the alpha couple. Amelia wants to join the group and makes Josh agree too. Imogen's favourite teacher, Mr Holland, agrees to host the group, and with Amelia's friend Maryam on board, they can form! So they do! Two other people turn up too. Imogen tells them her idea of making an accessible Pride event, and everyone is on board so they start fundraising. They also want to talk about the issue of gender neutral toilets because Clem is non binary and finds it hard to use any toilets. 

Imogen's family is more difficult and she has always felt alone, but in the book she makes genuine friends - people who accept her as she is. That leads to her coming out a little bit more! Plus Ollie finds exactly what kind of gay person he is and what that includes. There are so many surprises in this book and I loved all of them but don't want to spoil them. The book is funny and irreverent but also really poignant. I love how Ollie learnt that love comes in all forms. I love how Imogen accepted herself a lot more. I'm giving this four out of five and will definitely read something else by this same author! 

In Memoriam by Alice Winn - Review

Continuing with my theme of LGBTQ+ books for the month of June, I picked up this book as I have heard so many good things about it and really wanted to read it. I bought it earlier in the year with a gift voucher from Waterstones. It was ideal for June. It's hard going but ultimately a brilliant book and I can't recommend it enough. 

So, the book starts in 1914. Ellwood and Gaunt are in the sixth form at Preshute, a prestigious public school in Wiltshire. They are terribly in love with each other, but quite unable to say this to each other. They have plenty of friends around them. Ellwood is extremely charming and everyone loves him. Gaunt fights other boys and a lot of them find him prickly, but he is popular. And because this is a boys' school, there's a lot of sexual contact between older boys and younger ones, which both Gaunt and Elllwood have engaged in. But war has broken out and the school newspaper is full of the deaths of old boys, young men only, and it's all that anyone can talk about. Ellwood is a poet and has a quotation for every juncture. Gaunt is obsessed with the Classics.

Ellwood's mother is Jewish which makes people somewhat suspicious of him. He's an only child and he's determined that he is going to marry Gaunt's sister, Maud. This is clearly just because he adores Gaunt and thinks she is the next best thing. It's very Brideshead Revisited of them. Gaunt's mother is German and he speaks fluent German, and he and Ellwood spent a summer in Munich before the war. But obviously now anti-German sentiment is growing, and Gaunt's mother asks him to sign up for the army so that they don't get any more abuse. Gaunt is just eighteen and at this point the age to sign up was nineteen, but he's allowed to anyway. He signs up just before Christmas 2014. 

He is sent to the front in France as an officer in 2015. He writes letters to Ellwood (who he often calls Elly but never calls him by his first name, Sidney) and to an older boy he used to have a thing with, Sandys. I hadn't really before ever taken into account the class differences in World War One and the differences between the 'men' and the officers, who are all barely eighteen and have been at public schools. There is another officer, Hayes, who isn't upper class, and the differences are drawn really well and I loved this part of the story. 

And of course the war. Trench warfare. It's really harrowing - there's just death after death after death. Ellwood and Gaunt (because of course Ellwood signs up too) are first together and then separated. Gaunt is presumed dead, but I don't want to say too much about what happens to him. Ellwood is haunted by his ghost. Ellwood definitely has shell shock and Gaunt has terrible nightmares. Every soldier is just horrendously harmed physically or mentally or both. Probably both. I am glad I read this, but I won't say it's easy going.

The love story though makes it worth it. I don't want to say too much but I just loved it throughout. They are both ridiculous humans and I desperately wanted them to be together. I loved the ending. I'm giving this five out of five and I am making my friend Cinders read this because I want her to have her heart ripped in two as well. 

Just Like Everyone Else by Sarah Hagger-Holt - Review

As I said, I took this away on holiday with me because I wasn't sure how many books I would read, but wanted to make sure I had enough LGBTQ+ books to read as that's all I'm reading in June. I actually picked up a different book, but it turned out to be set at Christmas, which isn't something I wanted to read in the middle of June, so I picked this up instead. I read it really quickly and liked it more than The Fights That Make Us, weirdly! 

This book is set in Sheffield which I'm thrilled about because I think there needs to be more northern bassed books in both children's and teen literature. The main character is Aidan Taylor, who is twelve going on thirteen at the beginning of the book. He's in Year 8 and his best friend is Jack. Jack was one of the kids his mum used to childmind, and they have been close ever since. Jack is really into drama and gets bullied because other kids think he is gay. Aidan doesn't know if Jack is or isn't, but he thinks he himself might be. But he's really into running and he's just not sure about himself. 

He does fell running and is really good at it; he bonds with his Auntie Jo over running. She has just been accepted to run the London Marathon so she's really excited about that. She's at Aidan's for a family barbecue and she brings her friends Justin and Atif. 

Aidan is the eldest of five kids - all girls except for him. They are Bells, Chloe, and twins Daisy and Evie. Life is chaotic. Their parents are really involved in their lives and Aidan really has no reason to think that they won't accept that he's gay, but he still doesn't want anyone to find out. So when he realises Justin and Atif are a couple, he panics because he thinks that means people might realise about him. Then things get even worse because Aidan's Mum volunteers to be a surrogate for Justin and Atif. 

Aidan thinks his family is already crazy enough, and now there's another baby on the way. He can't bear to tell anyone at school. He's sick of Atif and Justin being around all the time, and the fact that everyone is just so positive about being a team about everything. I knew the book would have a happy ending but it takes a lot of twists and turns to get there. I loved Aidan and his sisters - they're so realistic. I liked the stuff with Jack and how that was resolved. A lot happens in the book. I love the fact that it's set in Year 8, which is a difficult year I think. I'm giving this five out of five because I just absolutely loved it. 

The Fights That Make Us by Sarah Hagger-Holt - Review

Still keeping on with my reading LGBTQ+ books for June, I took two books by Sarah Hagger-Holt on holiday with me because I've had them for a while and wanted to get to them. I've read and enjoyed two previous books by Sarah, so I knew I was in for some good stories. I genuinely think she's one of the best UK based middle grade authors out there at the moment. Plus all her books feature queer kids or families, which I love. I'm here for representation of all types of families in kids books, of course!

So, this book is about Jesse. They are twelve years old, and nonbinary. They're out to their parents and brother Tom, who is now off at university. Their best friend is Simran, who is pansexual. The two spend their weekends at queer bookshop and cafe Over the Rainbow. Jesse doesn't find it easy to get on at school due to some bullying, but they have this brilliant history called Ms Grant. She wants all the kids to choose a subject to do a special presentation on. Sim and Jesse aren't sure what to do theirs on.

But then Jesse's mum's cousin Lisa dies. Lisa lived with Jesse's mum's family for a bit when she was sixteen, but Jesse's mum isn't sure why exactly, as she was only five ish at the time. Lisa's brother Matthew now lives in Australia. Lisa has died and Jesse's mum takes them and Sim to the funeral. Lisa was a lesbian, and her friends have organised the funeral. They asks Jesse and Sim to find something in the loft, and as they're doing so, they find an old box full of Lisa's stuff. 

There's her diary, which starts in 1987 when she is getting friendly with a girl called Nicky. She thinks she's in love with Nicky but she knows her family will never accept it. Plus there's a new piece of legislation - Clause 28 (known as Section 28 when it was passed as law) - being considered. Nicky wants to protest it, and in 1988 she persuades Lisa and their friend Andy to go with her to London for the protest. The box is full of other relics of Lisa's teenage years too - her Dr Marten boots, a waistcoat, and a T shirt from the day of the protest. 

Jesse is intrigued to learn about their community, their history, and how this fits into their place in the world. I like Jesse and I liked getting to know Lisa through her diary. This is a very sweet book with very important messages. I'm giving it four out of five, 

Eating for England by Nigel Slater - Review

I picked this book up in a charity shop last year, I think. It's been down the side of the bed for ages. I've decided for June I'm just reading books by LGBTQ+ authors and/or about queer characters, so I knew this fitted as Nigel is not straight. I read Toast by him well over a decade ago, which is a brilliant autobiography told through food. So I thought I would like this, which is little vignettes about food, especially foods that are typically found in the United Kingdom. However, I'm not sure that it really worked too well. For one thing, Nigel seemed to conflate 'English' and 'British' and made it sound like all the people in the UK eat all exactly the same things. He really should have mentioned some Scottish and Welsh foods too. Plus he repeated himself quite a lot. There's a lot of stuff at the beginning about biscuits, like selection boxes of biscuits, and how pink wafers are terrible, and then there's the same thing at the end of the book too. Sadly I really can't give this more than three out of five. I'm sorry for the short review too, but I just really don't have more to say!

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven - Review

I've read a couple of books by Laura Steven before and generally liked them, as she was writing contemporary YA, which I love. Then at Northern YA Lit Fest a couple of years ago she was talking about this book, where she's pivoted a bit because this is a fantasy novel although deeply rooted in realism. I liked the sound of it so I bought it that day and got it signed by Laura. I've been meaning to pick it up for ages but then it got buried underneath a load of other stuff, so it's taken me a while. But I'm so glad I finally got to it! It was a good start to Pride month, too!

So, the book is set in Northumberland in the United Kingdom. There's a university called Carvell, which has a long and dark history. It used to be a convent, and a nun called Sister Maria took her own life in the late 1800s; she was later made into a saint and a statue of her oversees the college, with a necklace of rubies around her neck. Then, ten years prior to the setting of the book, four people died in mysterious circumstances. One of them, Janie, was known to one of the protagonists of this book, Lottie. She has been obsessed with the case of the four murders ever since. Part of her wanting to go to Carvell is because of these murders, which her dad isn't happy about. 

She is from Kent and she is close to her parents. She plays hockey for the county and wants to do the same at Carvell. She's studying English Lit and is very interested in the gothic. She is a jock, and very sunny and happy - she rarely gets angry or similar. She meets her roommate - yes totally tropey, they share a room - Alice and originally the two of them don't get on.

Alice is a proper goth, she is studying philosophy and is quite pretentious. She has two brothers and her parents. Her mum is unwell. Alice is from Northumberland and she has a lot of anger. Anger at how women are treated differently by the world, anger at how she's been treated, anger just at the world in general. She finds a book in the library which details a ritual she could do to make herself calm. She prepares a tincture and takes it one night in the library. And then her soul splits in two. 

Meanwhile, Lottie is obsessed with getting inside the North Tower, where all the deaths happened. The Dean, Vanessa Mordue, catches her one night and makes it clear she needs to back off. Lottie starts to sleepwalk, though, uncertain about what is happening or where she's been. And then she wakes up with a ruby embedded in her neck. 

The two girls absolutely do not get on and hate that they have to share a room. They're really different, and Alice doesn't endear herself to Lottie right at the beginning of the book. They barely getting along, but Alice desperately needs help to stop her harming herself or anyone else. Lottie wants to make friends and get on the hockey team, but the ruby is stopping her doing that... And there's also something between them, definitely. 

I really liked the setting of the book - it's eerie and gothic and I could picture it so well. I really liked both Alice and Lottie and wanted them to get together and sort it all out. I thought a few of the side characters could have done with a little bit more fleshing out, and I thought it did drag in the middle for a bit. I liked the mystery and the overarching message, and think this is a good message for young women to learn. In all I'm giving this four out of five. 

Eliza Mace by Sarah Burton and Jem Poster - Review

I really can't remember where I heard of this book but I clearly did because I requested it at the library. I must have been waiting a while because when it came in I was like what the hell is this book! But I picked it up and I ended up really enjoying it, which is the main thing. I think this is going to be the first in a series and I will definitely read the next ones. 

The book is set on the border between England and Wales somewhere in the 1870s. Eliza is sixteen, and lives in the big hall with her parents and her uncle. Her father, Robert, is an unpredictable and difficult human. He has run through the family's money, meaning that they have barely any servants left, and life is difficult. The house and estate belong to Hannah, Eliza's mother, who suffers with her nerves and is quite sickly. She refuses to sell any of the land which would make the family solvent again, mostly because she thinks Robert would quickly spend the money. He is a proper wrong 'un and he's borrowed off absolutely everyone, including his manservant, Jacob Todd. He's nasty and brutish with everyone. His brother, James, has to live with the family because he has fallen on hard times too. He is very close to Hannah and Eliza, which winds Robert up. 

Eliza's sister Charlotte is already married and living in Bristol I think. There are hints that it isn't a completely happy marriage for one reason and another. She and Eliza write to each other. Eliza loves her father even though she realises his faults. Her mother is anxious for her to marry well and wants her to behave like a lady. Eliza is too headstrong for that, though.

Then Robert goes missing. He is last seen in the town getting drunk in a pub, and someone was seen attacking him. His horse was then found and stolen, and the person concerned is arrested. The police are called, and the constable, who is new to the area, is determined to leave no stone unturned. He and Eliza get close, much to Hannah's consternation. Eliza is a sharp, intelligent, quick witted girl. I really liked her. I liked Constable Pritchard too, and James. Really a lot of people had a motive to do harm to Robert, and it was fun to discover so many motives. 

The setting is really good, too. There are definitely elements of gothic in it. I could picture the house and the surroundings so well and I really liked it. I'm giving this four out of five and I really hope there's another one soon! 

Send Nudes by Saba Sams - Review

I saw this book in a few bookshops but kept putting it back, but it definitely caught my eye, so when I had an Amazon voucher I picked it up. I like books of short stories and this is a really accomplished one. I would really recommend it! This book really gave me vibes of Boy Parts by Eliza ClarkBoy Parts by Eliza Clark so I think if you liked that this will appeal too. I'm going to send this to my sister in law Libby because I think she'll enjoy it. 

A lot of the stories concern young women, teenagers and a little older, women who are just coming into themselves and discovering their places on earth. There's a couple set in Covid lockdowns too, which I liked. There is love and hate and abuse and so on, a real plethora of experiences and so on. There's really not too much I can say and I've been putting this review off for ages, so basically: I liked the stories and am giving this book five out of five. 

Crown and Scalpel by C J L Thomason - Review

I was asked to read this book for a website that I sometimes write for. My friend is the editor there and she was sent this book because of its disability representation, and she thought I would do a good job of critiquing that. I happily said yes, even though fantasy is really outside of what I usually read, because I was interested in the subject matter. I'm happy to say that I liked the book and was able to critique the stuff around disability really well, although I did have a few reservations about the writing. I'm kind of glad that this book pushed me out of my comfort zone because I think that does people good sometimes!

So, this book is set amongst elves, who are quite similar to humans and live in a world like ours, but they live for centuries instead of decades. My reservations were around the writing in the book - it's generally really good but at points the point of view changed within a couple of paragraphs which was sometimes confusing. I think it just needed another decent edit, and that would have been way better. 

Here's what I wrote for the website:

Why does representation in books matter? This is something I have been wondering about for a long time, as I write Young Adult literature, primarily about disabled and queer teenagers, and am trying to get published. Why does it matter that all teenagers, of whatever gender, sexuality, ability, colour, religion, race, class, and a million other marginalisations, see themselves reflected in the books they read? Well, because it’s good to see people who look like you in media. It strikes deep chords. It contributes to self worth. It can bring about a deeper connection to one’s own community, or culture. I myself belong to several marginalised communities and am also interested in the intersections that people live in – for example, if they’re both queer and a person of colour. I understand that my experience of the world is shaped not only by my marginalisations but also by my privileges – I am a white cis woman living in the United Kingdom, which confers certain privileges upon me. One of the ways in which we can all learn more about our privileges is to learn about those who don’t have them and that’s another reason that representation matters: for people not in those communities reading about them engenders learning and brings about empathy. We could all learn more by deepening our understanding of the experiences of others.

That last part is a long way of saying that although I personally am not blind like the main character in the book I’m about to review, I do think a lot about representation and the issues surrounding it, so I would like to think that I can give a good review. But I realise that I am not blind. Neither is this author, C J L Thomason, but it is clear that she has done her research. I’m not sure if she has used a sensitivity reader but it seems likely. The blind people in this book are well rounded, well written, flawed characters, as all good characters should be.

I will also say that I generally don’t read fantasy novels so this one is a bit out of my comfort zone. However, this book’s world and world building really captured my imagination. For me I think it helped that it is recognisable as similar to our world, and that there are a few human characters.

However, this world is Elven, populated by elves. Elves live for centuries, unlike humans. Ambarenyll is already very old, but still pretty young for an elf. He is a doctor. He has a young ward and apprentice, Pallu. He is close friends with his brother, Faraiel, and their friends Arken and Raven. In this world, these people live in the kingdom of Landaila, which is ruled over by King Dohandrahel. He has a daughter, Jadaleyana, who is better known as Jade. Most people in this world are Mane, but there is a small faction of people who are Darme. They have purple grey skin and black eyes and are clearly marginalised and treated in a racist manner. They have had rebel uprisings over the years, and now Jade and her soldiers fight small factions of them.

On one such trip, Jade is injured by Darme rebels and ends up at Amba’s house. She has a broken leg and injuries along her side, so Amba and Pallu treat her. Many of her soldiers are dead and she needs to hide, so she stays at Amba’s house.

He is blind. He was married and had a small daughter, but they were killed in a Darme fire thirteen years ago. This also left Amba blind and unable to practice medicine. It has taken him until now, and the fact that Pallu is nineteen and about to start studying medicine, to start working again. He used to be a skilled surgeon but he is still a skilled doctor, using his hands and knowledge of herbs and so on to treat patients. He also has access to some human medicine, like anaesthesia, from his mentor Thomas.

He and Jade don’t hit it off well. She is prickly and entitled; he is traumatized and sometimes difficult. But they start to build up a friendship and an attraction grows between them. I really liked the romance part of this book, actually, as it seemed really natural and organic.

Jade has trauma too. Her mother and brother were killed by the Darme and she doesn’t get on with her father as he is difficult and angry. She flourishes while staying with Amba. But there are other forces at play, both Darme and other, that threaten her life. She and Amba have to take off suddenly.

I really liked this part of the book because it showed Amba’s strength and resilience and how he could fight even though he was blind. He learnt to ‘see’ his surroundings by using echolocation, which is explained really well. Other people don’t always realise to begin with that he is blind, and there are moments of prejudice when they find out, which seemed very real. They also ask stupid questions about his disability which is something that every disabled person has had to deal with and which Amba dealt with in realistic ways – sometimes he was angry, sometimes he dealt with them graciously. I also liked how Amba was sometimes angry with his disabilities, sometimes frustrated with himself, but mostly he managed to give himself grace and ultimately realise that he still had a lot to offer the world as a doctor and as a person.

I think this book is a brilliant example of the first one in a series: it sets up the world, it introduces the main characters and conflict, enough happens to keep it interesting, but there’s a bittersweet end that definitely paves the way for the next book. I would be interested in reading another, which is always a sign of a decent book for me.

I think it’s best to leave this review with a quote from one of the inspirations for it:

“Thanks for your diligence in portraying the blindness bit right. I’d say you’ve probably come closer than any other author I can readily think of. And yes, I can see you’ve done your homework.” – Daniel Kish Founder and President of the World Access for the Blind and Visioneers, Pioneer and Expert in human echolocation

Watching You by Lisa Jewell - Review

I picked this up in The Works a few weeks ago because I've really enjoyed the Lisa Jewell books I've read recently and liked the sound of this one, too. It was only £4 and I picked it up only a month after buying it. I really liked it. It's not exactly high brow literature but I think I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and at this point in my life that's what I want and need. 

So at the beginning of the book a body is found in a house in Bristol. The house belongs to Tom and Nicola Fitzwilliam and their son, Freddie. A woman is then being interviewed by the police. Her name is Joey and she lives just a couple of doors down. She is a suspect in the murder and it becomes clear that she would have a motive for murder. 

However, in this book, really nothing is at it seems. No one is as they seem. There are a lot of characters and a lot of people have motive for murder. 

So. Tom is a 'super head' headmaster, the type of one who goes to problem schools for a year or two, solves the problems, and then moves on. His wife Nicola is a lot younger than him. Their son Freddie is fourteen and honestly, he's a bit of a creep. He spends his time logging the movements of neighbours and he is obsessed with two of the girls at Tom's school, Jenna and Bess. He takes photos of them from his attic bedroom window and he becomes obsessed with a girl called Romola who goes to private school, as he does too. He feels like he is the only person in the world who doesn't 'get' just how amazing Tom Fitzwilliam is. Nicola is obsessed with Tom, pandering to his every wish. She is a bit of a bland person, she doesn't have a lot of personality of her own. 

Tom's house is up in Melville Heights, above the rest of the village, and the row of houses are brightly painted and quite posh. Two doors down belong to Jack and Rebecca. They are married and expecting a baby. Jack is a surgeon and utterly go getting and brilliant. Rebecca is a systems analyst and spends most of her time in her office in the house, dilligently working. Jack's sister Joey and her husband Alfie are living in the attic. Joey is ten years younger than Jack and has just been a flightly type of person her whole life. She was working as a rep in Ibiza when she met Alfie, and they quickly got married and have moved home. Joey thinks she needs to be grown up and settled down now, but she's working at a children's play centre and she's living with her brother, so her life isn't exactly going how she thought it might be. 

Joey meets Tom and is infatuated with him. He likes her, too, and there's definitely something between them. But what exactly? 

Then there's Jenna. She's fifteen and about to do her GCSEs. She is one of the popular girls at school; her best friend is Bess. Jenna's mum, Frances, is mentally unwell and think that Tom is stalking her. She is obsessed with 'gang stalkers' and she thinks that Tom watches her from his house. She also thinks that he is a man that was involved in an incident on holiday in the Lake District several years prior, where a man, his wife and child were on a coach trip, and a woman came up to the man and started hitting him, shouting angrily at him. Jenna knows her mother is ill but lives in fear of anyone finding out. Her dad and brother live several towns away, and she doesn't want to have to leave her school. Her mum does a lot of things that are verging on illegal if not actually illegal. 

She doesn't really care about Tom Fitzwilliam, but Bess is obsessed with him. On a school trip to Spain, Tom and Bess stay up talking late one night and Jenna thinks something is going on between them. I loved the depiction of these two teenage girls, it felt really true in how they acted. I liked that my feelings towards Freddie changed throughout the book. And I liked how people really weren't as they seemed. 

I will say that there felt to be maybe just one too many coincidences for this to be real, but that didn't bother me too much. I liked the setting of this claustrophobic row of houses looking down upon this village. I was entertained by the book and am giving it four out of five. 

Night by Elie Wiesel - Review

I can't really believe that I've never read Night by Elie Wiesel before. I have probably said it before that I did Theology and Religious Studies at university and as part of that I studied a lot of world religions and Judaism was one of them. I read some Holocaust literature then and I've read a lot since. You can find other reviews that I've posted here on the subject under the tag 'Holocaust'. But for some reason I had never picked this up. I think I have an anthology of writings about the Holocaust which is huge and which I've never read, and I am pretty sure at least part of Night is in that. But I hadn't ever read this and I'm ashamed for that because it has got to be one of the most well known pieces of Holocaust writing, by a survivor. I am so glad I finally got to it. I'm not sure where I picked this up but I think it was in a charity shop recently - probably Skipton at the beginning of April. 

It's a small volume but gosh, the things that are contained within. I knew that Elie was a holocaust survivor, of course, but I didn't know that his family had almost escaped it. They weren't deported from their native Hungary until 1944. As a reader so many years later that just seems so drastically unfair - the war was almost over! Auschwitz was liberated at the end of January in 1945, just a few months later! But of course at the time Elie's family would have no way to have known that. 

Elie was the only son in a family with four children - two older daughters and his younger sister Tzipora, plus his mother and father. They weren't deported until after the Nazis invaded Hungary. First of all they were moved to a ghetto (please be aware that the word 'ghetto' refers originally to where Jews were forced to live in Venice in the 16th century) and Elie describes the first night there, a night which for him was to last years and years as he was first imprisoned in Auschwitz and Birkenau, and then Buchenwald when the Russians got too close to Auschwitz, and then post war. 

He details arriving at Birkenau. His mother and Tzipora were immediately sent to the death chambers; Elie never saw them again. His older sisters were sent to the women's section and they both survived the war, but it was obviously years before Elie saw them again. He mostly concerned himself with keeping his father, Shlomo, alive. The veteran inmates of the camp tell Elie and his father how lucky they are and also how to stay alive. 

Obviously, the details of the camp are horrific to read about. For that, I am not giving this book a rating and am just telling you to go and read it. It's a classic for a reason and something that everyone really should read in their lives, I think. I found it really interesting to read about inmates being moved from Auschwitz to Buchenwald (within Germany's borders) - it was a death march very close to the end of the war in Europe and many prisoners died on the way. This is a part of the holocaust and war in general that fascinates me - how does life go back to 'normal' afterwards? How do people move on? Many Jews spent time in Displaced Persons Camps when the war ended. 

I'm glad I read this. It is obviously brutal. Wiesel is a master with his words; I particularly liked the way he used 'we' to refer to what happened to people as a whole. He does this often and it really gets across the suffering that a mass of people went through. Read this now. 

Weyward by Emilia Hart - Review

I bought this book in Waterstones just because I liked the sound of it. It was on buy one get one half price and I had a voucher from my birthday, so I got four books for about £30. I picked this up because I really want to read all four of them and am hoping to get them soon! 

This book has three strands of stories, and I enjoyed them all equally. The oldest part is set in 1619 when a woman called Altha Weyward is on trial at Lancaster Castle, accused of witchcraft. She is just twenty one years old and her strands are basically her diary. She grew up with just her mother, and they were the local 'wise women' - helping to heal the sick and so on. Altha's childhood friend is Grace, but when they are thirteen, Grace's mother Anna dies, and her dad blames Altha's mother. The two girls are no longer friends and it is now Grace who stands as a prosecution witness after the death of her husband John. Altha is definitely a witch - a weyward woman - but she and her mother have learnt to hide it because of the witch hunting that is going on. They live in Cumbria but Altha is taken to Lancaster, which really did have witch trials in the seventeenth century. I liked this blending of truth and fiction. 

The next oldest past is set in 1942. Violet is sixteen years old and lives at Orton Hall in Cumbria with her strict father and her brother, Graham. Graham is away at Harrow most of the time, and Violet is never allowed to leave the gardens of the hall. She is obsessed with nature - she can hear the flies and the clicks of her pet spider - but her father won't educate her and just wants her to marry well. He doesn't want her to turn out 'like her mother', who died when she and Graham were just tiny. Their cousin Frederick is coming to visit, and it becomes obvious that Violet's father wants to match the two of them. Violet isn't a witch - is she? 

The third strand is set in the current day and concerns Kate, Violet's great niece. Violet dies and leaves Kate her tiny cottage in Cumbria - Weyward Cottage. Kate has been there only once, when Graham died when she was a small child. Kate is in a relationship in London with Simon. He is abusive towards her - he tracks her phone, he hits her, he rapes her - and now she's pregnant. She didn't tell him that she had been left the cottage, so on discovering she is pregnant and unwilling to let Simon abuse the baby, she takes her car and drives up to Cumbria. There she begins to rebuild her life. It's obvious she has a lot of trauma because of the abuse and because of what happened to her dad when she was young. She has no idea about this history of her family, but she can discover it all in the tumbledown cottage. 

I really liked the book. I liked all three women and the different but difficult circumstances they have all found themselves in. Each period was really well written, too. Mostly the men are terrible but I did really like Graham, too - he's a bit clueless to begin with but he comes through for his sister at the end. I liked the magic realism within; witches are real and can do strange things, if they just know how to harness their power. I'm giving this five out of five. 

The Canal Murders by J R Ellis - Review

As you know, I love this series of books by J R Ellis, and have read all of them. I was eagerly awaiting this one and have had it on preorder since like last November or something. It arrived on my Kindle at the very end of April and I started reading it just a few days later. My mum was excited about it too, so when she's read it I will have to see what she thought. I didn't love it, though. I liked the story but I thought the writing was just a bit terrible. It felt very much like J R Ellis is just churning them out. I've always thought that his writing a slightly terrible - he relies too much on adverbs, and he uses other words when he can just say 'said', and if I had to read about Oldroyd and Andy 'munching' on biscuits one more time I was going to scream. But this time it really felt like the dialogue especially was just rubbish. There were people pontificating all over the place, and a lot of 'telling' involved in the speeches people made, too. 

All of this is a real shame, because I love these books. I probably will read the next one, yeah, but it feels a bit like cheesy chips from a takeaway - you know it tastes good at the time but you also know you couldn't read nothing but this type of stuff because it wouldn't be good for you in the long run. 

So, the story. Steph and Andy are on a canal boat holiday from near Leeds somewhere, and they're in Saltaire near Bradford, staying overnight. They go into a pub nearby and witness a woman having a go at a woman in a group of people at the folk night there. The next morning, Steph is up early when she sees a boat coming downstream, and then she realises the woman at the tiller is slumped over, dead. Steph and Andy secure the boat and call the police. Javed Iqbal, who used to work with them in Harrogate, is the detective on scene. He soon realises it's a strange case - there is no sign of anyone being on the boat with Annie Shipton, the victim. He asks Steph and Andy to help (of course), and then asks if they can get Oldroyd to come along and help (also of course). 

Annie Shipton was one of a group of friends who lived on the canal. The others are Bridget, Bob, and Liz. Her ex, Ben (there were way too many people with names starting with B in this book), now lives near Haworth, and Liz's husband Roger is dead. But all six of them used to be in a folk band together, called Rowan. They split up and fell out a bit over copyright issues and money, but then Annie had persuaded them all to buy canalboats near each other. They all, middle class hippy types, seemed to think of themselves as a bit above everyone else. Annie had written a blog about people she didn't think belonged on the canal, and one of these people, Laura, was the woman who had a go at her in the pub the night before her death. Then there's mysterious loner Len, who speaks of the spirits who live on the canal. 

No shortage of suspects already, for sure, but then we add in people from Salts Mill nearby. The CEO there has grand plans to expand the mill, but Annie has been at the forefront of a petition against it. Then there's Sam, a young lad who got into an altercation with Annie over his cycling down the towpath. He's not a bad lad really but he's a worry to his mum, and he's also a suspect. 

There are far too many suspects I think in this book, which ended up a little bit confusing. I liked the setting, as always, for sure, but I just felt the story left me a bit cold. In all I'm given this three out of five. It's really a 7 out of ten, haha. 

How to Die Famous by Benjamin Dean - Review

I bought this book in a bookshop in Edinburgh because I liked the other book I read by Benjamin Dean and I liked the sound of this one so I picked it up with a book token I got for my birthday. I picked it up at the end of April and it took me absolutely bloody ages to read. I just really didn't like it, but I can't really put my finger on why. 

The main character is Abel, and he's just got a job on the reboot of a series called Sunset High. He's British, but he's now jetting off to LA to film alongside the other stars - Lucky, Ryan, and Ella. But Abel is hiding the fact that his brother Adam was a victim of the Sunset High 'curse'. Adam fell to his death from a hotel roof three years ago. Abel is convinced he was murdered, thanks to Adam's final message to him, in which he wanted to talk to Abel about Omnificent, the production company that makes Sunset High. So Abel is going to try to uncover what happened. 

There were other victims of the 'curse' too. In the original series, a young woman called Mila was trated badly and has since retired from public life. Then in the first reboot, which Adam was working on, a young woman called Penelope disappeared and was never seen again. But the teens think must be different now, right?  

The other three don't know who Abel is in relation to the production member who fell off the roof, so Abel is able to do some detective work, including finding some people who Penelope spoke to just before her disappearance. But the other three have problems too. The book is told from the points of view of all four of them, although mostly Abel, and this is one of the things which didn't quite work for me. It just made it difficult for the reader to get to know any of the four of them particularly well. 

Lucky's mum was killed in a car crash being chased by paparazzi who were trying to take photos of him, so he's obviously feeling really guilty and stuff. He's Omni's leading young man, but he's drinking a lot to numb his pain and they're running out of patience with him. Ryan and Lucky are a couple, but Ryan is blindsided at the beginning of the book when she finds herself replaced by Ella. Ella and she are best friends, but of course, now the press are saying there's a rift between them because Lucky and Ella are seeing each other. Ryan also feels she is being pushed out by Omni in order for Ella to take over from her. 

Ella came from nothing, and her mother is pressuring her to make her career, mostly because she would like to spend all Ella's money. Ella has no one in the world, except her personal assistant Natalie.

Except none of this is actually true, which annoyed me. It's obvious there are secrets and baddies everywhere, but I just found the whole thing a little bit unbelievable. I'm sorry because I wanted to like this, but I've got to give it three out of five. 

Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson - Review

 

You may know that I love the DCI Banks books and have done for years. I think I've read most of them, but I haven't read many of the later ones because I've just got out of the habit of them. I was really saddened when Peter Robinson died though because it meant there would be no more books! I had been meaning to get around to reading this, the last one, because I feel like I owed it to the author and the character! My mum has read all of them and she recommended this, so I finally got round to it. I requested it at the library and when it came it was the large print version - does this mean I'm officially old now? 

In a way it is really sad that this is the last one because I would have liked to see Banks retire and take up a life of whiskey and listening to vinyl all the time, having served his time and more and having had a good career. Plus, Annie Cabot is barely in this book because in previous ones her dad Ray has died and she is taking some time off. I am not totally up to date on what has happened there, but it's briefly explained in this book. But it would have been nice to have Annie back working on Banks' last case. It's not Peter's fault, of course! I just feel sad about it!

This book has two different strands of story, which of course are going to cross over but the reader doesn't find out how until just towards the end of the book. The first strand is set in the early 1980s, in Leeds. Nick is a student at the university and his ex girlfriend, Alice, is found killed. They had split up after six months together and she had started to go out with a man called Mark when she was killed. The body has been found near where a victim of the Yorkshire Ripper was found just a few weeks previously, and at first police think the murder may be the work of the Ripper. They interview Nick but soon discover there's no way he could be the Ripper, but they still consider whether he killed Alice or not. Nick himself suspects Mark, but Mark has completely disappeared. Nick lives in a big house that has been split into bedsits, and Alice lived in the top floor flat. Her parents come to get her stuff and invite Nick to the funeral. Mostly he is upset, and also wants to work out what happened to Alice. This strand of story is really evocative of the early 80s around Leeds University and the fear around the murders that the Yorkshire Ripper did. 

Meanwhile, an archaeologist finds a body in a field near the A1. The field belongs to a farm which has been bought in order for the road to be widened and for a new shopping centre to be built. First, though, archaeologists are digging on the off chance that there are Roman remains nearby. This body, though, is nowhere near as old as that. The police are called in. They reckon the body was dumped around 2016, and is that of a sixty year old man. The police are drawing total blanks, but they are interested when they discover that the owner of the farm is an ex copper. 

There's also stuff which was quite current at round about the time that Peter must have been writing this book, which was about the undercover cops who had relationships with people under false pretences. It's really interesting and very topical and I liked the way it all came out at the end.

In all I'm giving this four out of five because I really liked it and enjoyed being back in Eastvale with Banks and co.